I talk too much. I always have, its my besetting sin. Well, one of them. I get excited and passionate about something and then I assume I have something interesting to say about every point that’s raised – that I can somehow explain the idea more clearly or delineate the problem more succinctly.

And I have very little inherent respect for my elders. Or professionally my more seniors. If I think they’re talking rubbish, I don’t hesitate to disagree or downright talk over the top of them.

Which is impolitic as well as impolite.

We had a big meeting the day before yesterday which went on for several hours. I came out grumbling about all the work I still had to fit in… and then it dawned on me: probably a good two hours of that meeting was me, arguing. If I’d shut up, we’d have been out of there significantly faster. And the outcome wouldn’t have been that much different.

“Okay, I’ll shut up. Some fellas have to keep their tongues flappin’ but not me. I was brought up right. My pa used to tell me to shut up and I’d shut up. I wouldn’t say nothin’. One time darn near starved to death. WOULDN’T TELL HIM I WAS HUNGRY!!”

Shutting up has its virtues. I’m one of the quiet ones at the office… as a result, people tend to unload all of their gripes and gossip on me. You can learn a heck of a lot about interoffice politics, and what sort of people you’re dealing with and how to best handle them, that way. There’s the added bonus that you pick up stuff that can be used to blackmail someone, should the need arise. 😉

Psychocandy- Who’s Daisy?? But I already have everyone unloading to me in the office because I’m pretty easy to talk to (even if I do have a tendency to talk back) so I know the state of everyone’s love life, family life and professional political wranglings (though not much of that here, thank goodness).

What’s really unsettling about being “confided in” at the office is when people share that they’re seeing someone else in the office. So then any time you see either of those people, it’s an “eeeew” moment.

I don’t know why people feel the need to approach me with this stuff. I hate small talk and random chatter, all that “hi, how are you” or “how was your weekend”, when you could really care less about the person or the minutiae of their existence.

Your “rabbit rabbit rabbit” reminded me of a scene from a British comedy show called “Spaced”. One of the main characters is a really fat, and excessively loquacious young woman named Daisy, and at the close of one episode she dramatizes her talkativeness (and its pointlessness) in a stage performance where she babbles “rabbit rabbit rabbit” over and over again…

‘Spike Set for Torchwood’ – ‘…the Buffy and Angel protagonist James Marsters (‘who he?’ – Editor) looks set for an appearance in the Captain Jack spinoff ‘Torchwood’. Marsters’s website reveals that he is to begin filming in Cardiff next month. [the makers] have already employed the talents of Anthony Head aka Giles the Librarian. How long before the slayer herself makes an ass-kicking return?

you see, that’s always been my argument – I don’t mind people who talk alot as long as they have something interesting to say (which both of you do), my concern was just that I ALWAYS think I have something interesting to add… which is unlikely.

Plus, meetings would be much faster if I shut up, and I hate meetings. I’m much more of a “You do your bit, and I’ll do mine, and let’s not have a meeting to discuss it every 2o minutes”.

Your strategy is especially useful in meetings. I have a hard time shutting up when someone has said something so remarkably daft that I am surprised that their head has not fallen off and rebelled at the very notion of being in control of anything that even vaguely resembles human form.

Since I know I will occasionally be overcome with the desire to yap on and on, I use the following guide. If the meeting has a scheduled end time, I yap. If not, I only smile and nod.